Collaborative Research: Waveguide-Integrated Graphene Nano-tweezERs (WIGNER) for rapid sorting and analysis of nanovesicles and viruses

非技术描述：该项目旨在设计和演示一个传感平台，该平台结合了电子捕获和光学电路集成方面的最新进展，用于快速浓缩、分选和分析生物纳米颗粒。从患者的液体样本(如尿液、血液等)中提取的病毒和细胞碎片包含丰富的诊断信息，可用于检测和治疗多种疾病。然而，从样本中的许多其他颗粒的混合物中检测特定的目标生物制品会使诊断变得复杂。目前分离目标生物颗粒的方法通常需要耗时的过程，如多个过滤或离心阶段，然后进行扩增。因此，一种能够根据生物颗粒的大小和物理性质对其进行快速分类、捕获和检测的有源生物传感器将对生物传感和医学诊断领域产生重大影响。大规模生产这种传感器可以降低接受医学诊断测试的患者的复杂性、成本和延误。该项目还为STEM领域中代表性不足的本科生和高中生提供指导和推广机会。技术描述：该项目将开发一种生物传感器，通过结合使用原子尖锐的石墨烯电极从可见波导中高度受限的逝去场激发和介电泳法(DEP)捕获，可以分类、捕获和检测细胞外小泡(EV)和病毒样本。为了展示这种集成了波导的石墨烯纳米镊子(或“Wigner”)平台，该团队将：1)结合透明的DEP石墨烯电极和氮化硅光子波导；2)集成微流体以实现高效的水性纳米微囊分离和捕获；3)展示使用线成像光学散射、荧光和拉曼光谱对单个纳米微囊和病毒进行快速检测和分析。该项目旨在以比传统扫描方法(即共聚焦荧光和拉曼光谱)快100倍的速度实现对纳米囊泡和病毒的生理选择性多模式分析。项目成果将与生命科学(例如，阐明细胞信号通路)、纳米医学(例如，在mRNA疫苗中使用的脂膜的动态抗体结合反应)和疾病诊断(例如，无扩增病毒检测)的新兴应用直接相关。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Nontechnical description: This project aims to design and demonstrate a sensing platform which incorporates recent advances in both electrical trapping and integration of optical circuits for rapid concentrating, sorting, and analysis of biological nanoparticles. Viruses and cellular fragments extracted from liquid samples of a patient (e.g., urine, blood, etc.) contain abundant diagnostic information which can be used to detect and treat many diseases. However, detecting a specific target bioparticle from a mixture of many other particles in the sample complicates diagnostics. Current methods for isolating the targe bioparticles often require time-consuming processes such as multiple filtering or centrifugation stages, followed by amplification. Therefore, an active biosensor which rapidly sorts, traps, and detects bioparticles based on their size and physical properties would have significant impact on the field of biosensing and medical diagnostics. Mass producing such sensors could reduce the complexity, cost, and delay for patients undergoing medical diagnostic tests. This project also provides mentoring and outreach opportunities for undergraduate and high school students who are underrepresented in STEM fields.Technical description: This project will develop a biosensor which can sort, trap, and detect extracellular vesicles (EVs) and viral specimens by combining highly confined evanescent field excitation from visible waveguides with dielectrophoretic (DEP) trapping using atomically sharp graphene electrodes. To demonstrate this Waveguide-Integrated Graphene Nano-tweezERs (or “WIGNER”) platform, the team will: 1) combine transparent DEP graphene electrodes and silicon nitride photonic waveguides; 2) integrate microfluidics for efficient aqueous nanovesicle sorting and trapping; and 3) demonstrate rapid detection and analysis of single nanovesicles and viruses using line-imaging optical scattering, fluorescence, and Raman spectroscopy. The project aims to enable physiologically selective, multimodal analysis of nanovesicles and viruses at speeds ~100× faster than conventional scanning methods (i.e., confocal fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy). Project outcomes will have immediate relevance for emerging applications in life sciences (e.g., elucidating cell signaling pathways), nanomedicine (e.g., dynamic antibody binding response to lipid membranes used in mRNA vaccines), and disease diagnosis (e.g., amplification-free viral detection).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.